Stephen Trapani wrote:

I'm enquiring on if
I can repair the toilet I have. It's a Groco Type K...

Aha! That changes everything. All previous advice was based on the
assumption that you had a "budget" model toilet. The Groco model K is a
top of the line manual toilet, toilet, built to last at least 100 years
with reasonable maintenance. I recommend you order a rebuild kit for it.
It'll cost you about $100, but when you consider that the toilet sells
for $600, and that a rebuild kit for a $100 toilet costs $50, well worth it.

Anyway, I took off the little backing plate on the back of the toilet
near the bottom with the water intake nipple. Under it is a flat piece
of rubber about 2"X3." It has a flap cut into the middle it with square
piece of flat metal attached to it. Is this the joker valve? The metal
piece contacts the internal portion of the foot pedal.

No...that's a flapper valve...it's a backflow preventer in the flush
water intake. The joker valve is in the discharge fitting. I couldn't
get the exploded drawing and parts list for it to come up online...but
if you call Groco 410-712-4242, they'll send you one.


Just above the metal piece attached to the flat rubber is a tear in the
rubber. Should I fix this?

It cannot be fixed. It has to be replaced.

How do I do so? Can I get a replacement part?

Yes...call Groco. But unless you want to keep taking the pump apart to
replace every part in the rebuild kit one part at a time as each one
fails, don't get just that part...get the whole kit.

Does this make enough sense for anyone to have any ideas about what I
should do?

Yep. Just don't even THINK of replacing it with a $100 toilet instead of
spending $100 on the one you have. That would tantamount to replacing a
Mercedes with a Yugo because it costs as much to repairthe Mercedes as
whole new Yugo.

And do follow the instructions when you rebuild it. It's not a job
that's particularly intuitive unless you know a good bit more about how
marine toilets work and the functions of the various parts than you know
yet...and it's so much cheaper and easier to do it right the first time
than it is to do it over.

--
Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://69.20.93.241/store/customer/p...40&cat=&page=1